In this blog I present the results of my research into the landowning families of the British Isles and the country houses which they owned. Comments, especially in the form of corrections, additional information or new illustrations, are very welcome. Please use the Contact Form in the right hand side bar to contact me privately or the comments facility at the bottom of the page to make a public comment.

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Saturday, 16 March 2013

(15) Acland of Killerton and Columbjohn, baronets, part 1

Acland arms

The Aclands are an exceptionally well-documented and well-recorded family, which over many generations has demonstrated a disproportionate tendency to produce male offspring. They have also married well, and as a result have tended to accumulate property. Two 18th century marriages in particular transformed the family from middle-rank gentry to a family richer than many peers, and enabled later generations to pursue successful political careers. Three different members of the family are reputed to have been offered and refused peerages, which may be a unique distinction! In this post I trace the history of the family's estates and tell the story of their principal houses, Columbjohn and Killerton.

The Aclands are reputed to have held land in Devon since the 12th century, and were originally based at Acland Barton in Landkey near Barnstaple. In the late 16th century a younger son of John Acland of Acland (d. 1553), Sir John Acland, kt. (c1552-1620) acquired Columbjohn and Killerton near Exeter (Devon), and was High Sheriff in 1608. On his death without issue, his estates passed to his great-nephew, John Acland of Acland (d. 1647), who was made a baronet by King Charles I in 1644 and who garrisoned Columbjohn in the Royalist cause, holding out long after all the other Royalist forces in the county had capitulated. After the Civil War, he moved to the nearby estate of Killerton, which was thenceforward the principal family seat. In 1672 the baronetcy and estates were inherited by Sir Hugh Acland (c1639-1714), 5th bt., who finding that in the circumstances of the Civil War no official record had been made of the granting of the family baronetcy, obtained a new patent in 1678, with the precedence of 1644.

Sir Hugh Acland (1697-1728), 2nd and 6th bt., married Cicely, elder daughter and eventual heir of Sir
Thomas Wrothe of Petherton Park. Through
this marriage, the Aclands acquired Petherton Park, North Petherton (Somerset),
which was sold in 1834. Sir Thomas
Acland (1722-85), 3rd and 7th bt., married Elizabeth (d.
1753) the daughter and heir of Thomas Dyke of Tetton (Somerset) and changed his
name to Dyke Acland; subsequent generations have almost invariably used Dyke as
a final forename. His wife had inherited
not only Tetton House at Kingston St Mary (Somerset) but also the Holnicote
estate on Exmoor and Pixton Park, Dulverton (Somerset); Pixton and Tetton
passed on her death to Maj. John Acland (d. 1778), who probably rebuilt Pixton
around the time of his marriage in 1770, and later to his widow, Lady Harriet
Acland (d. 1815), who moved from Pixton to Tetton in about 1796 and rebuilt the
house there around 1800. Pixton formed
the dowry of their daughter, Elizabeth Kitty Acland, on her marriage to the 2nd Earl of Carnarvon. Tetton also passed to
the Earl after Harriet’s death in 1815.
Holnicote remained with the Aclands.

In 1778-79 the 3rd and 7th Baronet employed John Johnson to design a new house on the Killerton
estate. This was initially conceived as
a temporary seat, pending the construction of a more magnificent dwelling on
the hilltop above, but plans for this grander house were abandoned after the
death of his son, Maj. John Acland, in 1778.

Sir Thomas Dyke Acland (1787-1871), 6th and 10th bt., grew up at Holnicote, to which his mother had retired
following the death of her husband in 1794, but in 1799 the house there burned
down. In 1802, he inherited the
adjoining estate of Selworthy and East Luccombe, together with lands near Bude
in Cornwall, under the will of William Wentworth (d. 1776); all these lands had
formed part of the estates of the Arundells of Trerice, with whom the Aclands
had intermarried in the late 17th century. At some point in the early 19th century, Acland rebuilt Holnicote House as a rather plain cottage orné (itself
burned and replaced by the present house in 1873), and in the later 1820s he
rebuilt the cottages of Selworthy village in a more consciously Picturesque
style influenced by those designed by John Nash for his friend John Scandrett
Harford at Blaise Castle (Glos). He also
enlarged Killerton House to the north, and continued the development of the
grounds there under the direction of John Veitch, who had designed the
original layout in the 1770s and who established his nursery at Budlake,
nearby. The Picturesque thatched Bear
House at Killerton may have been designed by Sir Thomas himself. A new chapel, built in 1838-41, was however
designed by C.R. Cockerell and built under the supervision of Sir Thomas' son, Arthur, who became a clerk of works and stone-carver.

Sir Thomas married Lydia Eliza, only
daughter of the banker, Henry Hoare of Mitcham Grove (Surrey) and had seven
sons, two of whom founded independent gentry families. The second son, Arthur Henry Dyke Acland
(1811-57) inherited the estates of Rev. Edward Berkeley Troyte of Huntsham
(Devon) and was the ancestor of the gentry family, Acland-Troyte of Huntsham
Court (q.v.). The fourth son, Henry
Wentworth Acland (1815-1900) became Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford and
Hon. Physician to the Prince of Wales, and was made 1st baronet of
Oxford in 1890. Sir Henry lived in Broad
St., Oxford, and his successors in the title have had no settled estate,
although recent generations have lived in the Isle of Wight.

The main line of Acland baronets
remained seated at Killerton until the death of Sir Francis Dyke Acland, 10th and 14th bt., in 1939. His
successor, Sir Richard Thomas Dyke Acland (1906-90), held left wing views and
transferred both the Killerton and the Holnicote estates to the National Trust in
1944 (300 hectares by sale, 2,310 hectares as a gift). The family is now represented by
Sir Dominic Dyke Acland (b. 1962), 13th and 17th bt., who
lives at Sprydon House, Broadclyst (Devon), a modest 18th century
house on the Killerton estate.

Columbjohn Manor, Devon

The remains of Columbjohn Manor

A younger branch of the Acland family of Acland Barton established
themselves here in the later 16th century, and it remained their
principal seat until 1672, when they moved to Killerton (q.v.). The house at Columbjohn was garrisoned for
the Royalists by Sir John Acland, 1st bt. during the Civil War, and
he held out long after all the other Royalist garrisons in Devon had
surrendered. It seems likely that the
house was badly damaged at this time, and today only the gatehouse arch of
c.1590 survives, Renaissance in detail but still Gothic in conception.Descent: Sir John Acland, kt. of Columbjohn (fl. 1608); to great-nephew, Sir John Acland, 1st bt. (c.1591-1647); to son, Sir Francis Acland, 2nd bt. (d. 1649); to brother, Sir John Acland, 3rd bt. (c.1636-55); to son, Sir Arthur Acland, 4th bt. (c.1655-72); to uncle, Sir Hugh Acland, 1st and 5th bt. (c.1639-1714), who abandoned the house for Killerton.

Killerton
became the principal seat of the Aclands after 1672,
but a datestone of 1680 is all that remains from their first house here. The present building was designed by John
Johnson in 1778-79 for Sir Thomas Acland, 7th bt. (1722-85),
apparently as a temporary residence, since it was intended to build a grander
house on top of the hill. Plans for the
latter were however abandoned after Sir Thomas’ son died in 1778. It is a plain two-storey Georgian box, five
by seven bays, the former entrance side to the south distinguished by a
slightly projecting centre and pedimented Tuscan doorcase. Extensions to the north were made in the
early 19th century for Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th bt,
who had a large family, and after 1898 the west side was considerably altered
and made the main entrance in a programme of aggrandisement carried out by
Prothero & Phillott of Cheltenham for Sir Charles Thomas Dyke Acland, 12th bt (1842-1919), who inherited in 1898.
The porch of this time was replaced after a fire in 1924 by a more
tactful entrance: a low hall by Randall Wells in the angle of the house and the
Edwardian billiard room. The spacious
hall interior makes a nice contrast with the main survival from Johnson’s
house, the elegant corridor from the south entrance, with shallow domes on
pendentives. The doorway and plaster
frieze of the dining room are also of Johnson’s time, although the ceiling
itself is Edwardian, as is much of the other decoration of the main rooms:
Adamish plasterwork by Jackson & Co., scagliola columns in the drawing room
(made from two earlier rooms) and the heavy carved wood main staircase. Upstairs, Johnson’s work is still
recognisable in the domed upper corridor.
The stables are a handsome Palladian quadrangular block of 1778-80 by
Johnson, decorated with blind arcading enclosing lunette windows, a clock tower
and bellcote. The grounds were laid out
in the 1770s by the young John Veitch, who enclosed 500 acres for the new
park. Veitch established his nursery at Budlake near Killerton before moving it
to Exeter, and continued to work for the family over a long period; there are
two Coade stone urns on the terrace dated 1805.
The gardens close to the house are, however, Edwardian, and laid out
with the advice of William Robinson.

The
Bear Hut is a quaint thatched log summerhouse which existed by 1831 and may
have been designed by Sir Thomas Dyke Acland himself, as he is credited with
picturesque cottages on his estate at Selworthy. It has three chambers, the inner one
furnished as a rustic hermitage chapel, and derives its name from the fact that
a bear was kept in it later in the 19th century.

The neo-Norman chapel, north-east of the
house, was designed in 1838-41 by C.R. Cockerell, although the style was
dictated by Acland and the project had been under discussion for at least
twelve years previously. Cockerell also
designed the main lodge in 1825 and the Sprydon Drive lodge. The house and estate were given to the
National Trust in 1944.